Beatty's Cabin, Pecos Wilderness |
May 21, 2003
(Story below.)
(Click on thumbnail to see full-size picture.)
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Hike to Beatty's Cabin
I hiked to Beatty's Cabin in the Pecos Wilderness yesterday (May 21, 2003). The joke is that there is no longer a cabin as advertised. The area is still labeled as Beatty's, even though Beatty is long gone. There is a meadow at the end of the trail with lots of open space and grass.
The drive of 50 miles took about 90 minutes. From Santa Fe, I drove to the village of Pecos and then went north to Torrero. Beyond Terrero about 4 miles, there is a turn-off to a forest road. In Day Hikes in the Santa Fe Area, the forest road is described thus: "Four-wheel drive is essential when the road is wet and muddy." Luckily, the road was not wet and muddy.
I arrived at the trail head of Trail 249 at about noon. The altitude at the start of the hike is 9,400 feet. The highest point of the trail along Hamilton Mesa is 10,600 feet. From Hamilton Mesa, there are expansive views of Santa Fe Baldy, Pecos Baldys and Truchas Peaks looking to the west. (I have hiked Santa Fe Baldy and looked east toward Hamilton Mesa, seeing large grassy areas; now, I've looked from the both directions. I'll try to get a matching photo looking down from Santa Fe Baldy this summer, after the snow melts.)
The hike was 10 miles total with cumulative uphill hiking of 1,640 feet. The trail follows Hamilton Mesa to a large meadow and then drops to the Pecos River at Beatty's Cabin.
I met only three people on the trail. There were three men coming back from Beatty's Cabin I met when I was walking through the meadow on Hamilton Mesa. They had a very tired-looking short-legged dog with them.
In the meadows, there were many, many sprouting wild irises, but very, very few blooms. On the way home, at lower altitude, I saw a field with an early bloom.
On the way to Beatty's Cabin, I saw a large bird (about as big as a chicken) which stayed on the ground near the path. I stayed and watched the bird for a few minutes, didn't get a very good picture of it. I don't know what kind of bird it was. It mat have been a grouse.
At one point, I heard branches crashing in the woods; I think it was elk fleeing from me, but I didn't see them. On the way down the hill, I saw three elk having an evening snack in a meadow. I photographed them, but they were too far away to show up well. The newspaper says there are over 70,000 elk in New Mexico; I was really happy to see some of them.
I also saw ten deer in a plot near a house on the road to town; there were really ten, but only one was well-lit for the photograph.
At Beatty's Cabin, I photographed skunk cabbage buds, the bridge crossing the Pecos River, a trail bum, and the trails leading to the north out of Beatty's Cabin meadow.